I smell death in the air...

THIS IS A ZOMBIE SHORT STORY FOR BUniques COMPETITION!!!!
Whispers. Those were the last things I heard before I died...

Submitted:Apr 19, 2013
Reads: 28
Comments: 3
Likes: 4

"Don't stop there. I suppose there
are also, what, vampires and werewolves and
zombies?""Of course there are.
Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun
priests are.""What about mummies? Do
they only hang around Egypt?""Don't be ridiculous. No
one believes in mummies."

~City Of Bones

Screaming awoke me and I leapt to my feet, pushing my face to the
grill in the cell door, peering out.

Across the hall I see eyes peering out of others as well, and I
met the green eyes of my best Friend, Ruben.

I see a cop stumble backwards down the hall, shooting endless
bullets at something I couldn't see.

I twisted my vision of sight but couldn't see what he was
shooting at.

My cell being the last on the row, the cop stopped just to side
of my vision, and then he had an idea. He started fiddling with
his keys, breathing heavily.

He undid my cell, grabbed my arm and dragged me out.

And then I was thrown into something soft, which let out a
whump of gas that reeked of decay.

As we both fell to the floor, I realised the screaming was from
the other members of the jail, who could see what I'd been thrown
on.

I turned and screamed a high piercing call to the heavens.

I'd fallen onto something... dead...

Flaps of skin were decaying off of the face as I watched, the
eyes were full of life however, and the broken, cracked,
yellowing teeth in its mouth were trying to get a mouthful out of
my face.

Can't blame the piece of shit for wanting a twin, I guess...

Where I'd hit it's stomach, there was now a dent, and as soon as
I crawled off its body, hyperventilating, the skin and bones
popped out, leaving a flawless torso completely at odds with the
green tinged zombie.

The zombie having decided that crawling was probably going to be
the best idea, in case of anymore human missiles, started
dragging itself towards me, its long nails, talons,
claws making a click click click as they made
contact with the hard concrete floor.

I lashed out, kicking it in the face, hearing the crunch of
bones, and black blood dripped across my bare feet, making my gag
reflex kick in.

The zombie let out a deep guttural snarl, reaching out one of its
claws and swiping across the bottom of my leg, just barely
caressing the skin.

I heard another door slam open, and this time a big guy was
thrown towards the zombie.

Having seemingly learnt that catching humans instead of getting
hit by them was more fun, the zombie seemed to smile as
the guy tried to run past it, and the zombie caught his leg,
dragging him down screaming.

The zombie ripped off one of its long claws, and with inhuman
strength plunged it straight through the neck of the dude that
had tried to escape; the dude issued one last chortle and twitch,
and then closed his eyes.

Crawling on top of him, the zombie embedded its claws into the
torso of the man, and ripped down in one quick sweep, the blood
rushing to depart the body as the zombie ripped upwards, ripping
skin, tendons, and muscle, anything in its quest to get to the
warm insides, the blood making an increate pattern on the floor
and white walls.

Turning my eyes away from the zombie happily gurgling on the
prey's blood, I ripped the keys from the wimp of the policeman
and opened Ruben's cell door.

"Hey Sugar, how ya doing?" wiggling his eyebrows, he walked out
in the hall.

"Holy shit! Mother of Jesus! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Ruben
screamed, pointing at the zombie that was currently sucking on a
piece of intestine like a strand of spaghetti.

"I think, my dear, that's called a zombie" I patted Ruben
delicately on the shoulder "Now come on you soppy little sod,
we're gonna go rob some places, then make a run for it."

I started to hobble away.

"The fuck is that on your leg?" Ruben asked, carefully edging
around the Zombie who was still excitedly exploring the blokes
inside.

"Oh, just a wee cut, now come on" I called, leaving the other
prisoners banging on their cell doors.

We'd walked past a few contended zombies slurping on their lunch
of police officers as we made our escape, but now we were stood
outside, looking at the line of police cars in front of us.

"OK, now what?" Ruben looked at me pointedly.

"Start trying cars. Duh" I rolled my eyes.

I put the keys into the first door, and tried to turn it, but it
wouldn't budge, and then the sirens started going off.

Ruben and I froze as we heard some groans coming from the left
side of the station, the same side as the hospital and cemetery.

"Right, we gotta go quicker" I whimpered, running down the cars
now, trying them as fast as I could.

As the first zombie stumbled into view, this one with still part
of her face, and close enough for me to see she was in pain, we
were five cars down from the end of the row.

"What if it isn't here?" Ruben squealed, sounding like a girl,
clutching at his short red hair.

"Then we run" I muttered.

Trying the fourth from last car the key finally turned

"Right, you're driving" I called across to him, loading my shot
gun and shooting the zombies in the face who were getting closer.

"Aye aye, boss" he muttered, sarcastically, but got in either
way.

I climbed into shot gun, smashed the window and leaned out, still
shooting zombies as we drove away.

We drove down the long derelict road for a while, towards the
nearest town, and I realised my entire leg had gone dead, and as
I lifted up my jumpsuit trouser leg, it was starting to go a
light shade of green.

We pulled into the nearest town, and it was absolute chaos, cars
were crashed and burning, and people were running down the road
screaming from their undead family who were stumbling after them.

One toddler ran towards their mother, yelling "Mummy! I'm scared"
when their mother turned round and sunk her teeth into his
throat, throwing her head to the side to end his death screams,
blood splattering up the pretty white cottage next to them,
creating a painting of life, as she devoured his flesh in chunks
whilst the small petite body twitched.

"This is disgusting" Ruben muttered.

"I agree with you there" I whispered.

I carefully studied a body at my feet this was missing an arm
limb.

The massive gash down the torso showed the ribs which looked like
someone had stuck their hands in and unmindfully ripped the bones
outwards, cracking them, and leaving a gaping hole where the
heart and lungs should be, the figures entrails half munched on
and dragged across the floor. The head had been ripped off,
showing a slight bit of spine protruding from the hole.

The head had been put under the arm that was still attached to
the corpse, almost as if someone's twisted sense of humour
allowed it to be put there.

Looking closer at the head, I saw that where there should have
be eyes, there were two empty sockets, and where there shouldn't
be anything, there were squashed eye balls running down the
cheeks, mingled in with the hair, where someone had forced their
thumbs into the sockets to play with the mulch left there.

The lips had been ripped off to show the leering grin of a
skeleton.

The nose looked like it had been bitten off, leaving jagged bits
of ripped skin. The only thing that was left was a bit of Septum,
which was only connected to the small amounts of non ripped flesh
left.

And even as I watched, the eyes started fixing themselves,
flowing back up the cheeks, and the arm still attached to the
corpse picked up the other arm, and forced it back into its
socket with a CRACK that made me shudder, even to this
day.

The half mauled hands reached down to pick up the head, and I
grabbed Ruben's hand and dragged him back towards the car before
I saw the final body piece put back into place, but I swear I
heard the crack snapping at my heels.

I grabbed Ruben's arm, digging my nails in in fright.

Then I fell to the floor, clawing down his arm, trying to hold on
and screaming as pain overtook my body, my body twitching.

"Run, Ruben, Run. I'm turning, please just get out of here" I
moaned.

He shook his head, but started walking backwards, running back
towards the car.

Every single nerve ending was on fire, and I bucked.

And then, thankfully, I blacked out.

A while later I was looking through red tinged eyes, and I could
see humans, all lined up in front of me, cowering in a corner,
waiting for their inevitable death.

I put my head to the side, maybe there was too many for me.

Instinct told me to pull certain muscles in my chest, and a loud
screeching noise came from it, making the humans cower and cover
their ears, screaming.

Zombies stopped what they were doing, and came stumbling towards
them, eyes wide; fingers ready to claw and rip through delicious
ripe flesh.

I fell onto the closest human, a small one, and didn't even kill
her before I sank my teeth into her throat, hearing her blood
curdling screams caress my ear drums and I chuckled as she
thrashed beneath me.

Then a bullet penetrated my shoulder and I looked up and growled,
that hurt. I got to my feet and ran towards a man wielding a gun
who dropped it in a panic and started backing away.

"So you can talk?" he whispered "Why can you talk, but not the
others?" he frowned.

"Because" I hissed, getting more used to the dryness in my mouth
"I am superior to the others, my brain wasn't eaten" this
information came to me naturally, like it was something I'd
always known.

He smiled then "That's all I needed to know."

Then a massive blue cloud came towards us at full speed.

I saw this in the window of the shop next to where I was holding
this man off of the floor.

As soon as it hit the other zombies, they disintegrated, and as
soon as it hit me, I screamed in pain, feeling like flesh was
being ripped from my bones.

I woke up two weeks later, according to the date on the news
paper next to me, in a white walled hospital room.

"Good morning" a nurse smiled at me "You're one of the lucky few
who survived the cleansing, the other zombie's just fell apart.
Now, what's your name, dear?"

"Hope" I whispered, my throat hurting "Hope Davidson."

"And where are you from, Hope?" she asked sweetly.

"London, I'm from London."

"And do you have anyone you want to contact?"

"Ruben. Ruben Jones" I gave her Ruben's phone number, and she
left me by the bedside.

I looked at the small TV next to me, which was turned to the news
and listened to the news reader tell us how the zombie infection
was spread due to pollution in the ground, which had infected the
bodies of those recently deceased, and how it brought them back
to life.

I looked in the mirror on the other side of the bed, and took in
my long ruffled blonde curls, my blue eyes and my pale skin. The
beauty spot above my full lips, and my small body.

A few hours later, a startled looking Ruben came running into the
room and smiled at me.

"Hey hon, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes wide and full of
fear.

"Yes, I'm fine" I chuckled.

"Ready to start going on murdering sprees again? But I can get
more than you this time before I get arrested" he laughed at me.

"I'm still beating you" I stuck my tongue out "My eleven to your
seven, as your highest score" I chortled.

I pulled myself up "But you should be able to beat me this time"
I sighed.

"Why?" he asked.

I moved the sheet to one side, showing him the stump at the
bottom of my leg.

"They had to cut off my ankle, you know, that being where the cut
was and all"

"Oh" he frowned "so I guess even their claws infect you then"

Then he stood up and locked the hospital door.

"But now I'm hungry, and if you can't run" he whispered "then you
can't escape. and if you can't escape"

he pulled up his shirt sleeves and I saw a massive scratch down
his arm.

"You gave me this, can you remember now?" he chuckled darkly.

"No. No Ruben. Please. I'm your best friend" I whimpered, rolling
out of the bed, screaming.

"and your screams will only make your blood taste sweeter..." he
said seductively.

"I won't scream." I whispered

"Of course not" he chuckled, as he turned the light off

"Fuck you then," I growl as the light fades away

"Good Bye, Hope." Ruben called softly in the dark

"Fuck you!" I screamed at him as a final challenge.

Silence for a moment. Then a snicker. A growl. The sound of claws
scuttling forward. I relax against the wall, resigned, not crying
or begging. I want to die with dignity. The sounds come closer.
Hissing. Crackling.

I lay my head against the wall. Stare up into nothingness. Try to
be strong.

His fingers touch my damaged leg. Claws explore. Soon I'm being
mauled, pinched, stroked, sliced. His breath is hot on my face as
he crawls towards me. I imagine his savage jaws and his sharpened
talons.

I tremble, then grit my teeth hard, determined not to give Ruben
the satisfaction of crying out. "I won't scream!" I mutter to
myself. "I won't! I won't! I won-"

Teeth bite into my flesh. Claws dig in deep, burrowing through to
my guts. His hands wriggle inside me and pull bits of my innards
out, scraping my skin with his claws from the inside to out. I'm
being torn apart. The pain is unbearable. I'm going to lose
control. My mouth shoots open; I close it again before it breaks
away from my control, reopening itself against my will. My senses
go haywire. My brain goes wild. The last thing I hear, before the
darkness claims me for it's own, is the small hopsital room
filling with my anguished, uncontrollable death howls.